Santa Barbara // Part 1 : Saturday

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

 Santa Barbara.

One of the most beautiful places in California. You might remember hearing about it from the most recent Bachelor wedding : Sean and Catherine. Home to one of the most beautiful resorts : The Four Seasons Resort : The Biltmore // Santa Barbara. We could have stayed there (for a hefty price tag). We could have stayed on the beach. We could have stayed anywhere.

But instead we decided to branch out ... outside our comfort zone (wayyyyyyyy outside of mine) and stay here :




What is Auto Camp? 
Essentially it is a RV park outfitted with Airstream motor homes turned into mini hotels. (You can find the whole story here).

It's actually a pretty cool concept which is what first drew me to it. Let me first say, I am not a camping person. So staying in a motor home would definitely not normally be something I would suggest. But when I stumbled upon the Auto Camp website, something in me just said "go for it, live a little" and so I suggested this to Seth for our anniversary weekend. And he was all about it. Everything in me wanted to be totally gung-ho about it, but I was still skeptical. We ended up booking it even though I wasn't 100%. But then the more I looked online and read reviews, the more I knew we made the right choice.

We arrived on Saturday morning, November 8th, super excited to check in. It was 11am and we were excited we could check in so early. We typed in the code that they sent us (since there is no reception desk to check in at and get your room keys, they have little key pads on the doors so you can just let yourself in) and it didn't work. Seth thought maybe he was doing something wrong because he tried three times and it didn't work. And then we re-read the instructions and saw 11am was check OUT time and 4pm was check IN time. Oops. Buzz kill.

I took a few pictures of our new digs and we were off for an adventure.

the motor homes across the way (there are 5 total) // our spot : spot 2
Airstream // our porch


On the way to Santa Barbara, Seth and I were talking and he mentioned that Firestone Walker (a beer company) had a brewery nearby. In the car I had asked Seth if he wanted to go (since he LOVES their beer) and he had said no, but once we realized we couldn't check in for 5 hours, we decided, hey - we're on vacation time - let's go check it out. We mapped it and it was only 40 minutes past Santa Barbara so we were off.


We both got beer tasters and neither one of us was disappointed.


We also got the daily special pizza - tri tip pizza with BBQ sauce, cheddar cheese, and crunchy onion straws on top.
DELICIOUS.


Next door to Firestone Walker is a place called Barrelworks (they are affiliated) so when we were done with lunch, we headed over there to check it out. Seth got two more beers and I tried these two beer-wine hybrids. I was pleasantly surprised that they were really good!


We enjoyed our drinks and then walked around the barrel room before heading on to our next stop.


My brother-in-law, Shawn, is a total wine guru. He knows the best places to go and suggested that since we were in the Santa Barbara area, we should go to the Zaca Mesa Winery in Los Olivos. We looked it up and it was only like 15 minutes from Firestone Walker so we were off. Boy was he right. Zaca Mesa did not disappoint and we definitely left there with one bottle of wine more than we started with.



By this point, it was a little after 3pm so we decided to head back to Auto Camp and see if we could "check in". We got there right about 4pm (aka check in time) and the code worked just like it was supposed to. While Seth unloaded the car, I took some pictures of our new home for the weekend.


front door // kitchen & sink
fridge & microwave // the "mini bar"

the beds // tv
smallest shower EVER // sink & toilet

the kitchen table // kitchen table converted into a bed


By the time we booked our Airstream, there was only this one left. Obviously not ideal for a married couple going alone (i.e. without kids or other people) but we figured we would make it work since the table converted into a bed. Definitely not ideal, but it worked!

After we got all settled in, we decided to take a walk downtown and figured out where we wanted to go for dinner .... 3.5 miles later ....we ended up at Brophy Bros. (where a couple people recommended - thank you!) on the water front. Unfortunately it was dark by the time we got there (I was hoping to see the sunset on the water) and there was an hour and 20 minute wait for a table (which means it's good!) but we didn't mind. We passed the time by taking a selfie and just taking in the fact that we were on vacation without a toddler and could wait the hour and 20 minutes without anyone having a meltdown.


Dinner was excellent and day 1 of vacation was off to a good start! We started walking back to our hotel and once we got close enough to downtown and could find a taxi, we grabbed it and had them drive us back - one 3.5 mile walk one way was enough for us for one day!

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Stay tuned for what we did on day 2!


15 comments:

  1. Just stumbled upon your blog! Seriously an airstream?! how fun!

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  2. I've never heard of staying at a place like that... Pretty cool! I would have been falling over if I tasted that many beers/wine... I've become such a light weight! How great to be able to wait over an hour without a meltdown ;).

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  3. That sounds like a really cool place to stay! My hubby would love something like that. The beer and food look delicious! Glad you had a fun first day :)

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  4. I LOVE the idea of that RV park! That's SO awesome! It looks/sounds like an amazing time. & that pizza - holy cow, I want it!!!! :)

    Mandie ~ http://badbrewpack.blogspot.com/

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  5. How awesome! I've never seen an Airstream camping park! We love Airstreams...but they are so darn expensive. Looks like so much fun. And that pizza looks amazing!

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  6. You went camping?!?! How did I miss that memo?!? Looks like ya'll had an amazing time!!! Love that it was a unique little getaway for ya'll!!

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  7. That looks like the coolest "camping" trip ever! Only day 1 and I love it already! I mean seriously a day that inludes wine, beer and a silver hotel room what couldn't be awesome! :) Looks like you guys had fun and I can't wait to hear more about your fun little getaway!

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  8. Such a neat fun experience. To stay in a tiny silver shiny thing! Yeah, totally not my thing. But fun still. Like once. Way better than actually camping. It is pretty cute. But, I love that you could wait an hour and twenty for dinner!! I don't think I'd do that even without a kid haha. The food looks amazing though. Too bad you missed the sunset.

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  9. Oh my gosh, I've never heard of this!! It definitely looks like a different, cool experience! Santa Barbara sounds amazing!! It's definitely on my vacation destination list!!

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  10. Oh my goodness I am all around insanely jealous. That is such a cool place!!! And the beer brewery?! Awesome. What a perfect get away.

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  11. Omg - I want to duplicate your entire trip! I'm aeriosuly going to try and convince Scott to do every single thing you mentioned. How freaking awesome and fun!!

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  12. OMG. I want to go on this trip! I don't even remember what "vacation time" feels like. An hour wait with no toddler meltdowns? All that beer? Wine? Where do I sign up?!!!

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  13. You guys are so cute!! :) How fun and different, what a fun idea to stay somewhere like that. The Mr. would be jealous to know you hit up Firestone Walker. What a great time, good for you guys!! :)

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  14. Wow, I'll have to check out the Auto Camp. I love to visit Bridlewood Vineyard. Roblar is another favorite too

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